Akeela Ahmed

Akeela Ahmed is an equalities campaigner specialising in youth and gender issues. She has over ten years experience of supporting vulnerable individuals with complex social and mental health difficulties, providing high intensity support services to young and homeless people from diverse backgrounds, including refugees, asylum seekers, ex-offenders and BAME groups.

She was Chief Executive of the Muslim Youth Helpline for three years, and has advised the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), the Faith Inquiry project run by the leading think-tank Demos, The Prince’s Trust Mosaic’s Ex-Offender Programme, the production team for the national primetime UK television drama Eastenders, as well as various government departments. Since 2012, she has been a Ministerially-appointed UK government advisor, sitting on the Cross Government Working Group on Anti-Muslim Hatred based at the UK Department for Communities and Local Government. Last year, she was appointed to the British government’s Office for the Children’s Commissioner advisory panel on the Child Sex Abuse in the Family Environment Inquiry. Akeela is also the Muslim Family Specialist at the Christian Muslim Forum in London.

Akeela is a property development entrepreneur. She holds an MSc in Mental Health Studies from the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College London. A regular contributor to national and international media, Akeela has appeared on BBC News, BBC 5 Live, BBC Radio 4’s ‘The Today’ programme, BBC London, BBC Asian Network, Sky News, Channel 5 News, the Guardian, Telegraph, and the Independent, among others.